Tins

I love pretty tins!

I started out buying them on eBay, as you do. I'd occasionally find an odd one or two at car boot sales, in charity shops, junk shops etc, but I rarely find them in such places now - unfortunately people often throw out beautiful tins for the recycling collection, and the few that do make it to charity shops are usually rejected because they've got crumbs in them, or something sticky stuck to them, or they're bent or otherwise damaged. I've seen them in junk or antique shops, but they're usually in too poor a condition for me to use. I can get round a few scratches, or rust spots (they're part of the item's history, so I don't always try to avoid them - I clean them up and wax the surfaces so that they don't degrade any further), but when the design is mostly gone, covered by grime or rusted away, there's no point.

I still buy them on eBay, but I also now have a whole fabulous army of tin-hunters (love my Tin Army), all over the UK, who have become similarly addicted to hunting down the perfect tin. I often tell people at fairs (having explained how I've made the earrings or whatever they're holding at the time) that they'll never look at tins the same way again, and they often come to me at later events and admit that they've also started looking for tins wherever they go! I've found tins on my doorstep, tucked under my stall at fairs, left in Zebediah's or Heather Jane's for me (see stockists page) and on my desk at work - yep, even my boss got the bug!

This 1950s George W Horner "Boy Blue" toffee tin has lots of fabulous tiny detail, so it works well as jewellery. 

They did a red one too, but it's VERY rare and I don't often find one, sadly. With both of these Horner tins, if they're in good condition, I can use both coloured parts of the lid as well as the body. Unfortunately, it's unusual to find one in either colourway with the lid in as good a condition as the base. The gold-coloured part of the lid is the same in either colour but I think, to date, I've only had two lids that were useable, so really ‘Gold George’ is the rarest of the three, even though there are only two!

(Yes, I know my desk is a mess, it's a sign of creativity haha!)

This one is 'Grace' by Huntley and Palmers, it's from 1963 and you may have seen some of the earrings made from it in the shop, including the butterfly wings. The design on the tin top is a 'relief', and I try very hard not to damage the moulding when I'm shaping the pieces.

This 1960s/70s Daher of Long Island design is my absolute best-seller, and this was possibly the biggest tin I've ever seen, that was still just a tin (not a trunk or case or something). That one lasted quite a long time!

Another good one - this panettone tin is absolutely COVERED in tiny detail and, not surprisingly, it's also a firm favourite with ScattyFans!

Finally, this is an example of a tin I can't really use - it's stunning, absolutely beautiful, bright and in excellent condition, but the flowers are HUGE! Even if I could bring myself to cut it up (which I can't), the beautiful design would be completely lost, it would just be tiny pieces of solid colour. Best left as it is, I think - I actually use this one as storage, it's full of little bits of other tins I've cut up over the years - and yes, it's one of several!